


Time

by theinklingsoftime



Series: Inkling's Pidge Ship Week Fics [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defenders
Genre: Angst, F/M, Pidge Ship Week 2017, Time - Freeform, post-canon AU, time skip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-03 22:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12156315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theinklingsoftime/pseuds/theinklingsoftime
Summary: They had all the time in the world.





	Time

The Twin Paradox. 

Terrifying in it’s own, simple way.

_If, in an experiment involving identical twins, one of whom makes a journey at the near speed of light, and returns home, they will find their counterpart has aged more._

Katie always hated it.

Could you just imagine, returning home to your family after years in space, to find them all gone, your house empty of everyone but yourself?

She would lie awake at night, after an hour of NOVA with Matt, and just stare at her ceiling, feeling the most alone she had ever felt.

* * *

Then came the Kerberos mission.

“Why do you have to go?” She begged her father over the dinner table.

“Kat, it’s an honor.” He said, chuckling the tiniest bit. “What would you do if you got asked to go to outer space?”

 _I’d say no_ , Katie thought to herself. 

For even with all her love of the unknown, Katie Holt still hid, deep inside her, her deepest fear:

 _They might never come back again_.

* * *

They never did come back.

* * *

And so everything fell into place with time:

She lost her place at the Garrison.

She cut her hair, stole her brother’s glasses.

Katie became Pidge.

She made no friends.

Friends found her.

And then they found a a lion, an outcast, a man who was supposed to be dead, a princess and her Castle.

 _She still hadn’t found her family_.

* * *

Now the war was over.

Thousands lay dead across the galaxy; how many because of their carelessness, Pidge didn’t know.

 _She really didn’t want to, either_.

And so time went on.

* * *

“What will you do, once we get back?” She said, wide-eyed.

“I have no idea.” Keith replied shortly, hands moving across the dashboard of the pod.

They were the first ones to go back.

_They were the only ones to go back._

“I’m going to find the closest supermarket and then just buy every single jar of peanut butter there.” She said, almost to herself, in a voice just above a whisper. 

“Every single jar?” She heard Keith say, and looked at him.

“Well, not every jar.” She admitted. “But-well, you know what I mean.”

They continued in silence.

“Jump to hyperspace in three-two-,” Keith started, and Pidge glanced outside the pod.

_Space._

_Beautiful space._

“One.” She felt herself slam into her seat, and felt the pressure on her eyelids, and felt the heat on her face, and-

 _Earth_.

“I-it’s-,” She said, tears welling up in her eyes.

She felt a weight on her hand, and looked over to see Keith’s hand on hers.

“I know.” He said simply.

And never- _never_ -in her nineteen years had she ever seen a more beautiful sight.

* * *

It was only when they got into radio distance that everything started to fall apart.

“I’m not getting any radio signals.” Keith said, a frown marring his face.

“What?” She asked. “What do you mean?”

“It’s silent.” 

And that’s when she knew something was terribly wrong.

* * *

A wasteland.

That’s all that came to mind as she stooped and let the dry, cracked earth slide through her fingers.

She straightened. “What could have happened?” She said quietly, trying to fight off the tears.

The Garrison base was in ruins.

“Nuclear activity. Can’t you feel it?” Came the response.

And they were alone.

* * *

They trekked across the desert, packs on their backs, faces shaded with fabric salvaged from the pod.

The ruined land puffs up in clouds of dust at their booted feet, and Pidge can feel tears slipping down her face under her hood.

 _Everything is gone_.

* * *

She wished it wasn’t Keith.

It wasn’t anything against him, of course, but-

Well, she barely knew him.

They spent no time together in training, talked only briefly during meals, and during battles-well, they weren’t exactly protecting each other’s backs.

 _Could she trust him even here_?

* * *

“The pod was charted to land near the Garrison.” Keith said suddenly, his voice cutting through the silence like a knife.

It had been hours since they had landed.

“So?” She responded, breathing heavily.

The water was almost out.

They had rationed as best they could, but it was no use; they brought almost nothing with them.

“So…….,” He trailed off, and lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes. “There.”

“What?” She asked, voice tight. 

“Look.” He handed her the binoculars and she jammed them up to her face.

She gasped.

For on the horizon was a tiny black dot; almost too small to be recognizable but-

“It’s the shack.” He said quietly, voice devoid of emotion. 

“It survived.” Hers quivered. 

* * *

It was a bit like playing house, the way they moved like ghosts around the small hovel.

She had only spent a day here, but it’s like coming home, she supposes.

 _It’s better than nothing_.

Night came quickly, and the snapping of cloth caught her attention from the sunset glinting over the dust clouding over the horizon. 

“Wh-what are you doing?” She stuttered.

“What does it look like?” He said sullenly, draping the blanket over the old bed in the corner. “You can take the bed.”

She flushed. “No, I couldn’t-,”

“It’s not up for discussion.” 

* * *

And so she slept on his bed, the moonlight filtering through the tiny window.

 _She couldn’t see him watching her_.

* * *

She woke up coughing, a thin layer of dust covering her face.

Pulling herself up, she saw the blankets on the floor empty.

“Keith?” She called.

There was no answer.

“Keith?” She climbed out of the bed, the sheets pooling around her.

It was quiet.

“Keith?” She near shouted, and raced toward the door and-

She slammed into him. 

“What are you doing?” He said angrily.

“I-I-,” She broke off. “I….thought you were gone.”

And she burst into tears, falling to her knees.

It was only after that she felt his arms around her.

* * *

They rummaged through the cupboards, flung open the windows, searched in the tiny nooks and crannies.

And they came up with nothing.

_Time had begun to speed up, it seemed._

* * *

“I think we should go back to the pod, and bring it back here.” He announced suddenly as they sat on the porch outside the shack.

She frowned. “We have no water-,” She ticked it off on her fingers, “No food, and no weapons. Going out there would be suicide.”

He shook his head. “So is staying in here.”

* * *

So off they went, the sheets they had found wrapped around their faces like veils.

She felt like they were back, in space, on another of those strange planets.

_Except this time they were trapped here._

_Alone._

* * *

They found the pod where they left it, now covered in a fine layer of sand.

Keith pressed a button, and the pod shuddered to life, and then-

It was still again.

He cursed. “It has no power.”

She knelt down, and crawled inside. 

“All instruments are down.” She called from the cockpit. 

“Everything?” She heard. 

“Everything.” She said as she ducked out. “It won’t even get ten feet off the ground in this state.”

Keith bit his lip. “Then we’ll have to push.”

* * *

There was a trail behind them as they moved inch by inch through the sand dunes and rocky cliffs.

“How much farther?” She wheezed, and they slid to a stop as Keith peered into the distance.

“Maybe a mile, or two?” He answered, hand shading his eyes.

She slid down next to the pod.

“I can’t go any farther.”

He kneeled next to her. “We need to get moving, Pidge. It’s nearly night.”

“No.” She said, shaking her head. “I can’t do it.”

“Come on, Pidge.” He begged. “We have to get back to the shack.”

“I can’t.” She said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I can’t.”

He slumped back on the pod. “We need to get back.”

And they sat there as the sun began to set, and the stars came out.

She watched the little lights twinkle up in the sky, and was reminded of that first night, and all the events that followed.

 _The cave_ ……..

“The cave where we found Blue!” She shouted suddenly, and sat up straight. “There was so much power absorbed from it’s time in there, I bet we could-,”

“Harness some of it.” She heard Keith say quietly.

“Exactly!” She said excitedly.   
  
“How much power?” He questioned, and she bit her lip. 

“I-I don’t know. To get out of the atmosphere in the state it’s in……..I have no idea. And if we overload it…..,”

“It’ll be destroyed.” He finished. “Well, what else can we do?”

“We…..,” She hesitated. “We might be able to send a signal out.”

* * *

As the sun rose, the bottom of the pod scraped the floor of the cave. 

“Come on.” She urged Keith. “It’s going to need to be in contact with the power reserve.”

As soon as she began to see the stone carvings, her heart rate quickened. 

“This is it.” She said. “This is the place.”

And she set about dragging the wires from the cockpit, and connecting them to the walls.

“Pidge.” She heard, and looked behind her. “Are you sure this will work?”

“Positive.” She answered, and, crawling inside the cockpit, held her breath and flipped on the switch. 

The monitors flared to life, and she let out a screech.

“What is it? What’s happening?” Keith’s voice sounded from the outside, and she clambered out to meet him.

“It worked.”

She led him inside, and she heard him inhale.

“What do we do now?” 

“I just need to……,” She pressed a button and suddenly everything went dark.

“What happened?” He said angrily, and she waved away a cloud of smoke from the dashboard.

“A…..an overload.” She replied, confused. “I-I can’t believe it.”

“It didn’t work.”

And they sat in the darkness, waiting for it to flash to life.

And it didn’t.

“We….we’ll need to build something bigger. Something that can take the power surge.” She said, somewhat to herself. 

“How long will it take?” He sounded tired.

“I-I don’t know. We’ll need more supplies. It…it might take months.”

“We don’t have months.” He said, and his voice sounded as though it might break.

“I know.” 

And she heard something beside her.

 _It sounded like crying_.

“I know.” 

* * *

They returned to the shack at daybreak, both thirsty and hot.

“There must be a way to get some water.” Pidge murmured. “Keith?” 

“Yes?” He called from one of the tiny rooms.

“Where did you get water from before?”

“What do you mean?”

“From….before.”

“There was a well nearby. The east side of the house. I don’t know if it’s still there.”

She stood outside with a board torn from the floorboards and swung at the ground.

Nothing.

She hit closer to the shack.

There was an echo, and she fell to her knees, sweeping the sand away with her hands.

There was a wooden door.

And she cried.

* * *

There was food down the little shaft, along with a ladder, and a bucket.

It seemed they had been saved.

 _For now_.

* * *

“I want to go back to the Garrison.” She said one day.

(She didn’t know what day it was anymore. Perhaps a month. Or two. Or three)

(Maybe a year had gone by and they didn’t even know it)

“Why?” He said, through a mouthful of dried corn (they had no idea how old it was, so they just added water and hoped they wouldn’t die).

“I…..,” She trailed off. “I want to start building.”

“Building what?”

“An antenna.” She fidgeted with her shirt (it had begun to fray the past few weeks. Or months).

“You want to send out another signal.” He said flatly. “Look, Pidge, it’s not going to-,”

“It’ll work.” She protested. “The pod just couldn’t handle the energy.”

“You aren’t going back there.” He stood suddenly. “I’m not going to let you.”

“Why not?”

“Because. I can’t trust you to go out there.” And then it’s as if a string has snapped.

“What are you saying?” She stood as well. “That this is my fault?”

“I didn’t say that-,”

“You didn’t need to.” She started walking toward him. “I know what you think of me.”

He clenched his fists. “And what is that?”

“You think-you think I’m-,” She started, finger pointed toward him, and then he grabbed her wrist.

“You really want to know what I think?” He spat. “I think you’re a selfish, little brat, who had no place in Voltron.”

Her eyes went wide.

“Every single mission, you either went behind our backs, or tried to go off by yourself. You didn’t care about the team. You only cared about yourself.”

“My family was out there!” She cried.

“And so were thousands-millions of others, but yet you still-,”

“You wouldn’t understand. You’ve never had a family.” She said bitterly, and a flush rose on his cheeks.

“I suppose I wouldn’t. Then again, you don’t, either.”

Her heart stopped.

It was silent.

“Pidge, I’m s-,”

“How dare you?” She screamed, and flew at him, her fist connecting with his jaw.

He stumbled back in surprise as the shock hit him, and she took the opportunity to begin to pummel him mercilessly.

“I hate you!” She yelled as they grappled on the floor. “I wish I was alone here! I wish you had never come!”

One of their arms connected with the table and something shattered.

He flipped them over, kneeling above her. “Then why don’t you leave?”

She spat in his face, and he flinched.

“I’ll leave.” She shoved him off her, and stood up. “Oh, I’ll leave.”

And she began to walk.

She walked for hours, never stopping, never looking backward for fear he might see the tears staining her pale cheeks.

* * *

 

Hours passed.

She was dying.

The sun had beaten down on her mercilessly, and she no longer knew which way she had come from.

Suddenly, she tripped and sprawled face first into the sand with a cry.

She lay there, the tiny granules burning their way through her skin.

_And her eyes began to close as the winds picked up……._

* * *

She woke, hours later, in the dark.

She could barely see four feet in front of her, yet she stumbled to her feet.

She made it about a few yards when she fell to her knees, and her eyes closed once more.

* * *

She felt warm.

Not the warmth of the sun, but….the warmth of-

She jolted up, eyes blinking open, when suddenly-

“Pidge.”

She felt an hand on her shoulder, and whipped around.

“Go back to sleep.” Keith said tiredly, and he pulled her back down onto the bed.

Yet her eyes couldn’t close when she felt his arm around her waist.

* * *

The sun shone over the horizon; just before sunset.

“Why did you come back here?” She whispered, as they sat on the porch, feet dangling into the sand.

“I’ve been asking myself the same question.” His voice was soft.

And they were quiet.

And time went on.

**Author's Note:**

> It's very bad, I'm sorry. Find me on Tumblr @theinklingsoftime.


End file.
